James Blundell – This Road Tour 1992

In 1992 James Blundell was enjoying success not only in Country circles, but in the mainstream media as well. Over the previous few years he’d cemented himself in the Australian Country scene, winning 9 Golden Guitar awards.

James came to the attention of a much wider audience with his 1992 duet with James Reyne. They covered a classic Dingoes song “Way Out West” and it went huge! This tour was right at that peak period and it was a pleasure to be a part of. It was probably the first time I’d ever done a tour that extended over such long distances and that worked 6 or more shows per week.

We had a brilliant band playing fantastic songs to packed houses for an extended period of time. We did four to eight week runs like this fairly regularly over a two year period which adds up to a lot of gigs.
I don’t yet have a full listing as there was a N.S.W. run before this and a Victoria/S.A. run soon after, but I haven’t yet found accurate gig lists for those.

Thanks again to my brother Brett for letting me go through his “shoebox” of old gig sheets.

Good one Gibbo. In 93 I did some of these gigs for live crewing, I think ( G’day to Michael Dafnis ) Actually lucked out and did some woolshed gigs which meant a good feed. G’day also to Trog & Lumpy. Other notable characters I worked with on these & other jobs were Mick Trayner & Woodsy. They worked with you guys on sound & I hung with lights. Good production meetings! Wish I could find my old gig diaries.
Definitely remember having a chuckle when after a couple of songs James would take his jacket off & every woman in the room would sigh. And at the end of the shows his wife trying to keep women out of the dressing room. It was hilarious.

Found my 94 gig book, 14th Jan I did Cronulla leagues & then Kurri Kurri on the 15th but towards the end of 93 I did a couple. One for sure was a woolshed at the gong. Cronulla leagues is a real test, if you don’t break on that one you will handle most anything.

Legend! The woolshed at the gong would have been Yallah Woolshed. You would have worked with my brother Brett on those gigs. I left touring in mid ’93 to do the corporate thing but Brett kept going with James Blundell & others for many years after that.

Too right about Cronulla Leagues. That was a lug and a half!

Mate I’d love to get some more dates out of that gig book of yours. Let me know if you’re keen. Cheers, Gibbo

Christ those photo’s stir some memories, and made me laugh hard enough to be untidy… Tex looking for his keys is five star..
My mobile has never changed, so if either you or Brett have it, give me a bell… I come into town every so often to drag the boys out of there… we need to catch up..
Give Brett all my best, your babies must be voting by now..?
Any word on Bazz..?
Cheers mate, and thanks for everything…
James..

So the good ol days and more roadie stories lol …Some of you guys might know of me and some wont but i was working with Mick Chandler doing sound Simmo from evans head up the nth coast doing FB and Simmo owned the PA …We did the fisrt 18 mths after James won is golden guits in 1990-91 and yeah Louise was the so called Tour Manager … I cant remember where but Mick had the 2 or 1 FOH amp in Pieces on a dance floor during set up one afternoon ..Louise walks in and up to Mick who is just about to explode .. over the stuffed FOH amp and she says ” Hi Mick having a good day ? so wheres the back door entrance for james to come in later on” Mick ansews …”ill see ya later then” she says … not errrr whats that FOH amp doing in pieces on the dance floor mick and are we going to have a PA tonight ? Do you need anything Mick ? Do you need me to get another one in Mick ? No she just didnt have a clue what was going on …Mick was really spewing over that one that day .. But anyway i was doing the show doing lighting 80 cans 4 18 ft winch ups 3 dimmers, esp 36 …. and just Mick Simmo and me and we went everywhere gympie muster, Tamworth fest, Sale country muster and so on .. along with The Blue Healer Band from Maryborough Qld whre they have 2 heads like down in Tassie .. I got sSacked haha for telling the drummer of the healers who was the head guy in the band to get fucked coz he was complete asshole and plus i drunk too much lol who cares anymore …Im known as Robbo…. I bet spme of you guys have heard of me on tour from mick and james coz i certainly had fun hahahaha and sometimes runa muk given it all up now and i live in Canada doing ok still in the business..

Yeah its me Recko … let me get this right .. you are short and had a beard and a 4 wheel drive that you sold that had a dark gold/orange top on the back… I remember you mate how ya going .. im just about to roll a joint when i saw my email about this message you sent now im typing this and still havnt rolled my joint .. see how important this is to me lol lets stay in touch somehow if you have FB look up David Reese ( zooty ) thats me .. good to hear from you again.

G’day David, mate you could have sparked up first LOL! I am on fb, believe it or not my name is Steve Rackley you’ll find the story of “How I got my nickname” on here as well. Great to find you, will be in touch. You’ve got some good stories Dave come on get ’em on here.

I joined this tour after QLD (Still have the Pass) It was the country Victorian, SA & Perth part of the run. Now due to a poor memory or just because I did so many gigs back then I can’t for the life of me remember whether I did monitors or was the PA rigger. I think it was PA rigger because Mike took on Tour Mangement/FOH and Louise stayed at home as Manager so I was needed to set up for mike. If someone can refresh my memory that would be great. I think Rob Potts got me on board? One thing I do remember is how good the band was. Bloody Awesome!! Oh and Tex’s Party trick!! (to rude to describe)and it was my first experience with an all ARX rig. I think I had been a little spoilt in the past having done all previous tours with Revolver, Jands and Sound on Stage rigs. The PA as I recall & I hate to say it was crap. I sounded processed even when it was “so called flat”. I hate ARX 1/3rd Oct eq to this day because of that tour. Also the tour was your typical outback killer. All long drives and no days off..thats prob why I have erased the bad memories for good ones. lol!

My (sometimes dodgy) memory of it was that you did stage on that run. Baz was off working for someone else for a short period. You are quite right about the band being awesome and about Tex’s party trick. Both were well worth seeing 🙂

Hi Mark,
Sorry if you take offense to my comment about the PA, crap is a pretty strong word and I will happily retract it. Lets put it down to a poor choice of adjective. In its favor I will say it was adequate and Mike pulled exceptionable mixes with it.

I enjoyed that tour because the band and crew made it a joy not a job, and thats why we do it anyway!!

I think I joined that tour after Strawb in 92. Think the first gig i did was in Cessnock but could of been Maitland.For some reason I travelled up with the band and only got there half n hour before doors to find I had about 16 guitars most with open tunings that changed for each song! and the set-list changed every gig!! Had an awesome time on that tour and Tex’s party trick still cracks me up to this day! Wonder what ever happened to Peter Paskiniscus?

Hi Mark, I started with James on his first tour (all but the first week) for about 18 months, I think it was around 88? Mick and I both come from Lismore and he roped me into doing monitors for this country bloke, it was lotts of hard work driving the truck, loading ect, I remember doing 31 gigs straight! before we told JB that we would 1 day a week off, I am looking for Mike’s contact details do you have them, regards Kim

Hi Kim
I think i was with you and Mick on those first tours too ..Lights !! I remember you. Then Simo came in on monitors with his P.A and truck. The blue Healer Band as his band. We were the Lismore crew in his first tours..thanks to Jeff and Mick it was a good experience and a lot of work and fun.
Cheers Kim.